1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to portable lathes and in particular to a bearing arrangement for a portable lathe.
2. Description of Related Art
Portable lathe tools of the type embodying this invention are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,591 and British Patent No. 1,450,774, published Sept. 29, 1976. A rotary bearing arrangement for the tool carrying head of the lathe is disclosed in the U.S. Patent while a ring with a sliding bearing surface is disclosed in the British patents.
With the fixed ring bearing arrangement such as is disclosed in the British patent, it is difficult or impossible to compensate for wear between the relatively sliding elements constituting the bearing surfaces for the tool head. Moreover, accommodation of dimensional tolerance variations also is problematic due to the fact that the various bearing elements are relatively fixed in an axial sense relative to each other.